Hikari groans as she wakes up, her muscles sore.

"Ow, why is everything so stiff?" she asks, annoyed. Trying to ease her soreness, she pulls her hands up to rub her shoulders. Only to realize she can't. "What the?" Alarm runs through her as she glances at her surroundings. No wonder she couldn't massage herself, she was tied up! The room seemed to have no light except from a small lamp in the corner of the room. "Hey! I demand whoever tied me up to let me out! RIGHT NOW!"

"Hehe, you 'demand' us?" a creepy voice returns. Hikari whips her head around the room, searching for the source of the voice. A lump forms in as a familiar shadow creeps out from the darkness. "Welcome, our little tribute."  Two more shadows step out from behind the shadow looming over her, causing Hikari to silently scream before passing out.

~Hayato~

"Ri-chan! Oy! Toda Hikari!" calls Hayato as he races down the hall. It didn't take very long until the entire class was woke up.

"What's going on Hayato? I was in the middle of my sleep," whines a cute Takeda, wiping his eyes. The others groan in agreement, angered that their leader had been so loud.

"Yabuki, tell us what's wrong," Yankumi states calmly, although she was shaking.

"Ri-chan's missing!" he shouts with worry. "I went to the bathroom to wash my face and heard a scream. When I came out, she wasn't there anymore! This whole day she's told me that the ghosts from the legend had been after her but I didn't believe her!"

"What?!" exclaims Yankumi with shock. "We need to find her now!"

"Hayato, we'll find her," Ryu says comfortingly, placing a hand on his friend's shouler.

"Everyone split off in groups of three!" Hayato commands. "I don't care how long it takes but if we don't find Ri-chan then no one is allowed to sleep!"

"Why do you care so much?" Tsucchi asks teasingly, sharing a smirk with the rest of the class.

"I d-don't know! J-just find her! Understand?!" by his bellowing voice, everyone begins rushing off in different directions as Hayato, Ryu, and Yankumi run in a separate direction.

"Let's check starting from the roof and work our way down," suggests Ryu.

"Ehh?!" Yankumi exclaims once again. "But this hotel has 30 floors!" Her complaint earns her a glare from Hayato.

"We must find Hikari no matter what," he hisses at her. "If you don't want to run all the way then I will start from the parking lot. You and Ryu will start from the top floor then."

"But that's dangerous!" their teacher forbids. "One student's already gone missing, what if something happens to you too?" However Ryu shares a nod with Hayato and the two put the plan into action, ignoring Yankumi's cries.

"Be careful Hayato!" Ryu warns, running upstairs as he yanks on Yankumi's hand.

"Yosh, now it's just me. I promise I'll find you," Hayato says quietly, stepping in the elevator to go to the parking lot. He carefully searches the parking with a flashlight, making sure he's checked out every single corner and possible places to hide a body. Due to its huge size, Hayato finds himself spending nearly an hour in just the parking lot alone. Suddenly his phone rings, he quickly picks it up but gets his greeting interrupted.

"We've searched floors 25-30 already, but still no signs of Ri-chan," Ryu reports. "We're now on the 24th floor."

"I'm still at the parking lot," replies Hayato, embarrassed by his slow speed.

"It's fine, just--" A scream cuts Ryu off. Hayato's eyes widen as he hears Yankumi screaming and punches being thrown. Then silence. Fear races through Hayato once again as his breathing begins to slow down.

"Ryu?" asks Hayato, worried, but the dead tone of the phone is the only thing he hears. "RYU!" Hayato screams as he races back to the elevator, smashing the buttons to take him up to the 24th floor faster. "HURRY UP!" Elevators are fast, but when one is in a hurry, it feels like centuries before it hits the target floor. Around the 15th floor, Hayato's phone rings again. "RYU? What happened?! Are you okay?!"

"Leader! It's Hiro!" a classmate's voice comes through the phone, causing Hayato's heart to falter a bit.

"Did you find Hikari?" he asks quickly. "Or Ryu or Yankumi?"

"No, haven't found Hikari yet, and what happened to those two? Weren't you guys supposed to be together?" Hiro asks with alarm. Before Hayato could reply, someone else seemed to have taken Hiro's phone.

"Leader! Takeda's been taken!" the other voice informs him. Hayato drops his phone. By now he is finally at the 24th floor, so he quickly recovers from the shock and picks his phone up.

"What happened?!" Hayato demands his classmates, running through the hall to look for Ryu and Yankumi.

"I don't know, the lights just suddenly flickered and out on the 7th floor. When the lights resumed working, Takeda was just gone!" Hiro explains.

"That's it, all of you go back to your rooms right now," orders Hayato. "I can't have any more of you in danger. I'm the leader, I will find them on my own. Go back to your rooms first and begin calling everyone and tell them the same thing." Before Hiro could reply, Hayato ends the call to focus on searching for Ryu. Five minutes later, no one is in sight. "KUSO!" He screams, punching a nearby wall, nearly breaking it. Right at that moment, his phone rings. The caller ID was enough to make his heart stop. "RI-CHAN? Ri-chan! Where are you?"

"Hehehe....Not exactly," a deep voice cackles into the phone. Just the voice itself was enough to make chills run up his spine, but he tries to keep his voice steady.

"What have you done with her? If you've harmed her in any way, I will bring you all back to life and kill you a second time," threatens Hayato.

"Now now, no need to be harsh, just come to the basement," the voice taunts. In less than a second, Hayato hears the dead tone of the phone again. However he had no time, he had to run, NOW. Without another word, he dashes back into the elevator and presses the basement button franticly. The doors slowly slide open, revealing a familiar tomboy that had worried the life out of him.

"Ri-chan!" Hayato shouts, tackling her body in a hug. He sshakes her violently, trying to wake her up. "Ri-chan! Come on Hikari, you gotta wake up, come on please wake up!" To his relief, her eyes finally flutter open.

"Hayato?" she groans. "How did you find me?"

"Because I'm the invinvible, indestructable, and handsome leader of 3D!" Hayato brags, earning a weak slap from her. "Hey I ran all around looking for you, show some gratitude."

"Thank you," she whispers. felt dry since she had not had water for quiet some time. The thought of the shadowy figure slips back into her mind and Hikari begins to struggle in his grasp once again. "Get me out of here! Hayato please we gotta go! He's gonna come back!"

"Elevator's this way!" Hayato leads her through the maze of crates to reach their destination. As they s through the maze, Hikari trips over Hayato's foot. "Whoa be careful there, Hikari."

"Whose fault is that that tripped me with his big feet?" she asks, glaring up at him.

"Let's not play the blame game, we're here, you'll be safe soon," Hayato says, placing her on the elevator floor. "Go to Hiro's room okay? I gotta find Yankumi and Ryu."

"No!" Hikari cries, latching onto his arm. Worried, he slowly kneels down to her level. "Don't leave me. What if those ghosts get me again?"  Hayato sighs, wondering what to do. On one hand, Ryu and Yankumi's whereabouts are still unknown. But on the other hand, Hikari looked traumatized out of her mind and Ryu and Yankumi can take care of themselves pretty well. Plus they had each other.

'And it'll give me more time with Ri-chan,' Hayato thinks in his mind, feeling her hug him even tighter. He wraps his arms around her softly and protectively. In just a few seconds, Hayato was glad he chose to stay with her, because the elevator sudden;y begins to shake violently with its lights flickering.

"Hayato! What's going on?!" screams Hikari, burying her face in his chest.

"I don't know!" he yells back, trying to shield her eyes from anything that would scare her.

"Hahaha!" the ghost's voice cackles. "You didn't think we sent you to where she was just for you to get her did you?"

"Then why?!" Hayato demands.

"Because she is the bait for you!" the ghost answers. "One of you must be a tribute for our brother, so who will it be, leader of Kurogin's 3D? Will you offer yourself as the tribute or will you hand over the girl?"

"Hayato, you can't," pleads Hikari. "I'm the one who got captured, don't take my place!" However he looks between her and the ghost and decides to ignore her words.

"Take me then," he states bravely, standing up. "Let Hikari go and take me as the tribute instead."

"What? Hayato no!" Hikari yells but is pushed back down by him.

"I'm the leader!" Hayato reminds her angrily. "It's my responsibility to take care of you."

"Well I'm a leader too!" Hikari reminds me. "You guys made me the third leader yesterday! So don't you dare pull that joke on me!"

"Now, now, why would you two fight of dying?" asks the ghost, and then laughs again, scaring the daylights out of Hikari. The two look at each other and back at the ghost, silent. "Won't answer me? Okay then." Two more ghosts appear from behind him and each held one of the leaders up in the air, choking them. "If you don't answer me truthfully, Yabuki Hayato, I will kill your friend off." Hayato struggles against the grip, keeping his eye on Hikari the entire time. He was sure she couldn't take much more of this.

"Because... Because..." he struggles with his words, unsure of what to say. "BECAUSE I LIKE HIKARI OKAY?!" Right when he says that, the two ghosts release Hikari and Hayato. What surprises them even more is that they hear laughter, not cackle, but regular, heartful laughter.

"What's going on?" asks Hikari angrily. When she didn't receive an answer, she punches the ghost that held her, who let out a familiar grunt. "Wait, I know that grunt from anywhere..." She grabs the top of his head and kicks him in the stomach once again, causing him to fly into the opposite wall while Hikari remains standing there with a head in her hands. "EEK!" She quickly drops it and runs to hide behind Hayato.

"Mission accomplished!" Takeda yells, taking off his mask.

"What's going on?!" demands Hayato. "Why are you still alive after being eaten by the ghosts?!"

"You moron, they weren't eaten by the ghosts, they WERE the ghosts!" Hikari reprimends him, slapping him in the head.

"We're friends with ghosts?!" gasps Hayato, earning slaps from all the 'ghosts' and Hikari.

"No, we were pretending to be ghosts," corrects Tsucchi, getting up from where Hikari kicked him.

"We noticed some things, and let's just say we wanted to give you guys a push," Hiro confesses, stepping out from behind the doors.

"Can someone just explain to me what the heck is going on?!" demands Hikari angrily.

"Kosuke," Ryu commands, taking off his mask.

"On it," Kosuke obeys. "So the whole class got a bit annoyed with your guys' slow pace. You know, at getting together. So planned this out when Yankumi announced the onsen trip. We made up the legend and the whole class is in on it. We had Ryu disguised as the main ghost in case you guys wanted to attack. He is the only one who can handle you afterall. Tsucchi and Takeda were the other two ghosts. We had Ochimaru working with the lights, and the rest begged the hotel to let us go through with this plan."

"So you're telling me the legend was made up too?" asks Hayato, making sure he heard it right.

"Yeah!" answers Okuma.

"Hold on!" Yankumi yells, pushing her way through the group. "Why wasn't I informed about this?! I was in the dark too!"

"Because Yankumi is a horrible actress," Takeda teases, reminding her the time when she couldn't even pull a prank on the class.

"Yeah! You would've ruined all our plans," agrees Tsucchi, causing her to drop sadly.

"Wait one last thing," Hikari states, trying to figure it out. "What do you mean by 'getting together'?" The class all look at each other and burst out in laughter, except Ryu, who had a smirk.

"Confession," he states. "Hayato admits that he likes you." Hikari turns a blushing Hayato.

"Is it true? You like me?" she asks.

"Let's leave them alone now," Takeda offers pushing everyone out. Once the door to the elevator close, he turns to them. "Don't worry, we can watch it later. The camera's still recording." The class quietly snickers and sneaks off to the cameraroom to watch.

"I like you Ri-chan," Hayato repeats. "I have for a while but I didn't realize it."

"When did you start?" asks Hikari, blushing.

"Ever since you comforted me back when Maya cheated on me," he answers. "But I realized it just tonight before you screamed earlier."

"I'm sorry," she says. "But I don't think I like you like that." His eyese widen as he dramtically collapses on the floor.

"SHOCK!" He cries, and Hikari walks away apologetically. "Ri-chan!" She turns too look back at him. "You don't know to like me, but it doesn't mean I won't try to make you like me!"

"If that's what you want Leader," she says, smiling at him.

"I will make you like me, Ri-chan, count on it," Hayato swears.